The Emperor’s Angel of Death

Chapter 3456: Fortress Pharos

As the two walked side by side, a piercing alarm sounded within the fortress, and many weapons were subsequently activated.

“Sotha has been invaded by unidentified xenos that kill on sight, and the civilian casualties are rising exponentially! Everyone is going crazy!”

“Not Tyranids?”

“It seems to be Necrons.”

“That's strange.”

Thracius was also a bit bewildered; he was deploying defenses in the shield station when he suddenly received a notification that the planet was under attack, ordering him to return to the monastery immediately.

At the time, he was puzzled; he hadn't even seen the shadow of a Tyranid fleet, so how could they suddenly be on the planet?

And now they're saying it's Necrons?

When did Sotha get Necrons?

Although, in their position, Necrons weren't exactly new xenos—in fact, the Emperor's Scythes had participated in several wars against the Necrons. They had at least seen these metallic xenos before, but they had never heard of any Necrons appearing around Sotha. It couldn't be that there was a Necron nest right under their noses, could it?

Unless…

They came from *that* place.

Beyond the outer wall was the gate, a hundred meters tall, an elegant, conical Gothic arch carved with spreading branches, the doors crafted from high-grade adamantium and engraved with the joy of farmers at work—men and women in straw hats harvesting crops with scythes.

Seeing Thracius approach, the battle-servitors of the chapter stationed near the gate saluted him, and Thracius nodded in return—the defense facilities of the entire bastion area were mostly managed by mortals; the Space Marines were too few in number, and they trusted their people.

The sun was already setting, sinking behind the Pharos Mountains, with only the highest tower on the summit still bathed in golden light.

Thracius walked into the shadow cast by the defensive works, silent and preoccupied. The outer sentry towers emitted a dim red glow, seemingly always vigilant against enemies in the shadows. Numerous forks and small doors branched off to various ancillary facilities of the fortress, and occasionally, he saw servitors walking by with their heads down, hurrying on their way.

The space on the mountaintop was extremely limited, so the courtyard behind the gate was small and triangular, with the high, vaulted walls overlooking the interior, pierced with small holes on one side.

At the right side of the triangle's apex, a second, smaller door led through the walls to the summit, while on the opposite wall was a wide, low garage door leading to the chapter's armory. A red-armored warrior was speaking to some servitors. Thracius considered greeting them, but worried about disturbing them, he ultimately passed by in silence.

Passing through the small door and heading upwards, Thracius climbed a massive staircase carved directly into the basalt mountain face, the steps covered with tiled vaults, every inch of the stone surface engraved with exquisite reliefs.

It spiraled upwards continuously, its width not constant, with some sections wide enough for two Space Marines to march side by side, and others so narrow that only one could pass at a time. The gradient was also sometimes steep and sometimes gentle.

In practical terms, it was neither convenient nor the optimal route, and it didn't seem suitable for defensive purposes.

But this wasn't because the Emperor's Scythes preferred such winding paths, but because they had no choice.

If one looked closely at the main body of the Emperor's Watchtower, they would notice strange black lines in the basalt covering the mountain, and the higher up one went, the wider the fault lines formed by these black lines became. By the time one reached the summit, the basalt could no longer cover these cuts, and on one side of the spiral staircase, one could see those extremely deep green stones, appearing black in the shadows, only revealing a hint of their true color where the sun shone.

This forced the Emperor's Scythes to bypass the areas where the black rocks intruded into the basalt when building their fortress. On the one hand, the black rocks were difficult to cut, and on the other hand, the chapter's founder had ordered that the black rocks be avoided as much as possible during remodeling or decoration, which was why the road to the uppermost level of the fortress was so winding.

Some servitors once claimed that these black rocks would emit a faint, life-filled glow at certain times, but once observed, the mottled green would dissipate.

But the chapter strictly forbade such superstitious rumors and forbade servitors from discussing the black rocks. This was the only area where the Emperor's Scythes would not compromise with mortals.

Soon, they arrived at a small platform, the steps reaching their final section. Thracius looked up at the brick tunnel, which curved vertically to accommodate the change in angle as the spiral staircase became a straight ladder. The width of the steps here was so narrow that even the feet of fully armored Space Marines could hardly fit completely, and the difficulty of climbing forced them to slow down, even having to use their hands.

He wasn't tired, but the power armor made his movements inflexible, and the power pack and wide chest armor made it difficult to maintain balance, forcing them to stow their weapons.

Normally, they wouldn't hold a meeting here, because it was too troublesome to come, but the current situation was tense, and they needed to draw wisdom and courage from their predecessors.

After climbing the steps, Thracius arrived before a magnificent hall, the polished marble reflecting light like a mirror. There were no mortals here, only warriors of the Emperor's Scythes, fully armed and ready to go. A straight corridor led to a pair of pointed arches with half-open polished bronze doors, with rows of statues lining both sides of the path. These statues rose hundreds of meters from the dark, bottomless trenches on either side of the hall until they were level with the ground, but not all of these statues were Space Marines; there were also many mortals.

This place was used to commemorate the founders of the Emperor's Scythes and the men and women who fought alongside the Space Marines during the ancient Great Heresy.

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Thracius passed through the bronze doors and entered the Founders' Hall, which also had marble facings and contained even more statues, all of them Space Marines in master-crafted armor. A round-hilted dagger adorned with the chapter's crossed scythes was embedded in the center of the floor, surrounded by stone mosaics depicting ten different styles of horseshoe prints, symbolizing the chapter's different companies. At the rear of the hall were two staircases, one up and one down, both with more elegant curves.

The light through the doors was not enough to illuminate the entire hall, which was as dark as a natural cave, but the light from a temporary projector in the hall compensated for this. Around it stood eight people.

“How could Necrons appear?”

As soon as Thracius arrived, he immediately cut to the chase. Second Company Captain Agaitas sighed softly and shook his head.

“You ask me, who can I ask? It's like seeing a ghost in broad daylight; everyone wants to know how they got here.”

Then he reached out and pressed a panel, and after a ripple of water, many images appeared.